RESUMO
Belgium has been collaborating with the French-speaking University of Abomey-Calavi in Cotonou (Republic of Benin) for 15 years to train anesthesiologists for Sub-Saharan French-speaking African countries. At the end of the nineties, Sub-Saharan Africa was the only part of the world with a decreasing number of anesthesiologists. Thanks to various financial supports coming mainly from Belgian governmental cooperation funds, the program has been successful in reversing the demographic trend and even started a multiplying effect through the creation of schools for nurse-anesthetists, and through the creation of new training centers for physician anesthesiologists. Sixty-nine anesthesiologists from 13 countries graduated from Cotonou, 59 (85.5%) of whom actually choose to work in Africa. At least 40 of them teach anesthesia, playing a key role in the creation of new schools and training centers.
Assuntos
Anestesiologia/educação , África Subsaariana , Bélgica , Benin , Humanos , Cooperação InternacionalRESUMO
The situation of Anesthesiology in Sub-Saharan Africa is unique in that nowhere else in the world has the absolute numbers of anesthesiologists decreased during the nineties. Most anesthesia services to the populations of these 17 poor countries are provided by nurse-anesthetists, either certified or trained on the job. Their mean age often exceeds 40, which leads to expect an acute shortage within fifteen years. Experienced anesthesiologists are now so few that, in most countries, the critical mass of knowledgeable specialists no longer exists to train new anesthesia professionals. This summary of local surveys provides a brief overview of current workforce, institutions, drugs and material constituting the daily environment of our colleagues. Challenges are outlined, with special emphasis on brain drain. Solutions are proposed, underlining the promising role of a few anesthesia schools, the need for young anesthesiologists to enter teaching, and the expectations they are supposed to meet.
